The best film of the 50s according to the audience, this is it!

Directed by Sidney Lumet and released in France on September 4, 1957, 12 Angry Men averages 4,567 stars according to AlloCiné viewers and is one of the top five films of the decade 1950-1959.

Story ? A popular jury of twelve men must decide the fate of an 18-year-old man accused of parricide. Depending on the jury’s verdict, the accused may be sentenced to death or acquitted on principle. Reasonable suspicion. In the hope of speeding up the trial, eleven of them declare him guilty. Only one juror, number 8, has reasonable doubts about the young man’s guilt and will do everything to avoid the death penalty…

A play written by Reginald Rose that has been adapted many times around the world. Three years before Lumet’s masterpiece, 12 angry men It already appeared on television screens in American homes thanks to the CBS channel on September 20, 1954. The play has also been adapted for small and big screens in West Germany, Spain, India, China, Lebanon, Russia… A classic and Lumet’s film is an absolute masterpiece and is considered a benchmark for experimental films.

Produced by Henry Fonda – who initiated the project – and shot entirely in New York in record time (barely 21 days), this is Lumet’s first feature film, a director who belongs to the directing school and who previously only worked on American television.

Here he gives us a model of austerity in his staging, where the actors and the audience are confined to the point of suffocation, in a room 5 meters by 7 meters. “One of the most important dramatic elements for me was the sense of confinement that the men in that room must feel.”The director explained in his essay making a movie (Published in French by Editions Capricci).

A strong advocacy against the death penalty and racism, a critical examination of the functioning of the American legal system, the film is also fueled by a tense exchange featuring an extraordinary cast. Henry Fonda, of course, in Juror 8. But also supported by Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, Jack Worden or Martin Balsam.

In 2007, he chose a film National Film Registry for deposit in the Library of Congress, because of its interest “cultural, historical or aesthetic” important. It is also selectedAmerican Film Institute In His 10 best experimental filmsAs the second best film in this category, behind another masterpiece, Du Silence et des ombres.

Sharp and cinephile classification

The rest of the ranking is eclectic based on your scores. The opportunity also measures that Japanese cinema has the lion’s share of the 1950 – 1959 period in the greatest films of this decade. On the second step of the podium is the masterpiece of Japanese cinema, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, Steward Sancho.

This Martin Scorsese tribute movie has an average rating of 4401 out of 5. A bronze medal was awarded to Stanley Kubrick’s Extraordinary Walks of Fame; Probably the best film ever made about the 14-18 war. He averages 4,382 points out of 5. Alfred Hitchcock ranks 4th in Rear Window with an average of 4,362 out of 5. Finally, Akira Kurosawa takes up the rear of this top 5 with Vivre, averaging 4,355. 5. You can see the rest of the (very long!) rating here.